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You go to a T-14 and finish below median or at the bottom of your class. Can you still find some level of gainful employment that you could service your debt with if you paid sticker? Do you try to grab a government job and get on IBR? Any thoughts on this?

Gov job is not a terrible option. If you can get into a state AG's office, there is decent pay, decent hours, lots of fast experience, and you can go into a corporation or a firm after a few years. Go for it.

thanks lawgod. I'm actually a 0L right now, but appreciate the advice. I'm just trying to weigh options to see if a T-14 is really worth sticker/what you do if things don't pan out for you there and you don't get BigLaw.

lawgod wrote:Gov job is not a terrible option. If you can get into a state AG's office, there is decent pay, decent hours, lots of fast experience, and you can go into a corporation or a firm after a few years. Go for it.

This is naively optimistic.

I have good friends who worked hard, got decent grades, and applied for several jobs like this from my T14 after striking out during OCI. They graduated unemployed.

There are over 5,000 students in the top 14 and there are hiring freezes and budget cuts all up and down the government sectors. The DoJ is hiring fewer people out of law school than at any time in its history.

It's a very, very hard road to get a government job these days. They care less about grades and school, but they are by no means a fallback option.

In addition, while some can jump to "firms" it's functionally impossible to jump to a large firm or biglaw. Which doesn't make it a poor career path, but it's not a magical back door. My firm and many like it exclusively hire people from its 2L summer class or rarely as laterals from other big firms or big firm summer programs.

In my experience, "graduating unemployed and struggling" is what happens to most people that OP described. And it sucks.